Re: Some suggestions

["Raymond A. Brown" <raybrown@clara.co.uk>]

At 4:54 pm +1300 19/1/99, Andrew Smith wrote:
>On Mon, 18 Jan 1999, Raymond A. Brown wrote:
>
>> The modern Cymry manage it, as well tl- and dl-  :)
>>
>Gosh, they're clever those Cymry!

Wrth gwrs :)
.....
>>
>I am disinclined to lose such magnificent gobstoppers as ddla, The Grand
>Master Plan would argue against it.

I cannot argue against the GMP ;)

[FINAL AFFRICATES]
>>
>> Gosh - fancy my forgetting 'Brithenig' !!  I guess we're so used to
>> Brithenig it would be awkward to change it unless we really had to.  I've
>> already gone off final -gh.
>>
>That would place us at square one (or ultimate syllable one) either a
>digraph is permitted *ffelits, *ffelig', *ffeliz or a rule is added to the
>pronunciation to say that some final '-g's are soft for historical
>soundchanges and must be learnt where they are encountered (personally I
>don't believe in one letter, one sound as a law of natlangs).

But it generally is so of Welsh spelling, if you count the many digraphs as
separate letters as the Welsh (and Spanish) do.  The major exception, I
suppose, is {y} with its two different sounds.

If the Chomro have the same concern as the Cymry for 'phonetic' spelling
(and the Cymry certainly have - they see it as a mark of their superiority
over their Saxon neighbours who haven't the brains to work out a consistent
orthography!), then I don't think they'd really like -ig = [ik] sometimes
or [idZ] othertimes - you just have to know.  A digraph, I think, is
unavoidable for one of the sounds; if cg = [dZ] is outlawed because of its
Saxonness, then one has to look within the language itself.

Introducing {z} merely as a final consonant to 'get over the problem' is
IMO a bit of a fudge & should be avoided.  {ts} looks odd for a _voiced_
sound.  {g} with little tick or a dot above it (a la Maltese) would, I
think, be acceptable for [dz].  Otherwise, tho I don't like 'Brithenigh'
aesthetically, it does have a logic from within the language.  Therefore, I
suggest to the keeper of the GMP :)
         Final /g/         Final /dZ/
either      g                 g'

    or      gh                g

Ray.